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Last Year, more than 24 000 Participants Explored the Forest in LVM School Programmes

Promoting the interest and understanding of the forest among children and young people, last year 23 566 students of various ages and 759 teachers participated in the environmental education programmes offered by JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM). Thanks to the long-term cooperation with the State Educational Content Centre, the Latvian Environmental Protection Fund and the Interdisciplinary Educational Innovation Centre of the University of Latvia, students from pre-school, primary and secondary schools, as well as students and teachers, have gone to the forest to explore it.

According to Līga Abizāre, Head of LVM Environmental Education, the largest number of participants has traditionally been in the groups of the youngest children – 8 600 children from 294 groups participated in the LVM eco-programme for kindergartens “Pigman’s Detectives”, while 7 477 students from 147 classes participated in the primary school programme “Mother Nature Master Class”. The popular LVM forest expeditions, where 5990 students of the 6th grade took part last September, have experienced a large increase in interest. Also other educational programmes such as LVM Forest Game, School of Bioeconomics and sticker competition “Oxygen” brought together passionate students who created creative works about the forest.

Last year, there was a lot of interest in the forest knowledge digital game “Mežotājs” for students of grades 8-9; 722 students from 189 classes competed in this game last year. A new school forest has been opened at the Kandava Kārlis Mīlenbahs Secondary School, where more than a hundred children will now have the opportunity to learn about the diversity of the forest every month.

Also, schools have used the opportunity to gain new knowledge about the forest under the guidance of a guide at a number of LVM tourist facilities: LVM Nature Park in Tērvete, LVM Kalsnava Arboretum and LVM Vijciems Cone Drying Facility. Creative workshops, Latvian forest days and lessons in the Green Classroom have been held in Tērvete. Similar activities took place in Kalsnava, where new trails and forest information materials both for the young and the old have also been created. New information stands have been set up in Vijciems Cone Drying Facility and various training sessions have been implemented.